Rakuten Viki names COO
Details
Michelle Clancy
| 22 May 2019

Rakuten Viki, a video streaming platform for premium Asian entertainment, has promoted Makoto Yasuda to COO.

Yasuda will be responsible for driving top-line growth and new business development, while overseeing the company’s marketing, advertising, editorial and community teams.

“Since joining Rakuten Viki in 2014, Makoto has successfully led growth in our subscription business while simultaneously driving significant increases in ad revenues,” said Sam Wu, CEO of Rakuten Viki. “Over the years, Makoto has demonstrated a knack for strategy execution, operational excellence and building transformational teams. We look forward to his continued leadership for Rakuten Viki.”

Yasuda has more than 15 years of experience. Prior to assuming the COO position, he managed the revamping of Rakuten Viki’s subscription and advertising businesses as senior vice president of revenue.

Before joining Viki, he held management positions at Rakuten Inc., where he oversaw e-commerce, sales and group-wide global business integration. Rakuten reaches more than 40 million fans in 190-plus countries via Viki and its Korean entertainment brand, Soompi.

Yasuda has a bachelor’s degree from Waseda University.